I actually had a reverse experience. I expected it to be butchered and unwatchable but it turned out really nice. Much different from the comic but this made be think that Sandman is not an usual piece of text but a kind of mythology and it suites it to be retold differently. So yea, it was "Netflix'd" but I think its a feature and not a bug. Each storyteller tells the story in their way and this is very in-line with the core idea of Sandman. Besides I am genuinely happy to see people watching it after so many years of being a fan.

My experience as well!

I guess the Sandman TV show benefited from Neil Gaiman's watching over it. He claims he blocked many a bad Sandman adaptation from being produced, and this one -- with its inevitable changes -- has his approval and oversight. I think it shows.

I found many of the changes to be an improvement. The early comics really hooked into the DC mythos, and while that was cool as a comics nerd to see how all that fit together, it would be unwieldy in a standalone series. I particularly like the changes they made for Dee/Dr. Destiny.

I haven't read the original material, but I really enjoyed the show as well. Though I think I enjoyed American Gods S1 and then lost interest somewhere around S2 or S3, so I'm raising my expectations too much just yet

Yes, Sandman could have looked much better. But it was still enjoyable.

I didn't find the production values as distracting as Tom Sturridge's eternal, "Blue Steel" face.*

*My wife insists it's actually "El Tigre".

I'm finding The Sandman enjoyable for what it is, so far (3 episodes into it).

Nothing to rave about, and it suffers from some dodgy production issues, but then again the comics (er, "graphic novels") didn't really have amazing artwork anyway! It was all about the novel (for its time) and adult story by Neil Gaiman.

I don't find Sturridge's emotionless face distracting, because the Sandman is pretty inscrutable anyway. What I do find distracting is his youth; it doesn't really convey the agelessness of the character, I would have expected either someone a bit older, or one of those real-life people you can never tell their age.

Yeah, I read they avoided offers for a live action for years but I'm not sure why it's sacrosanct. Maybe it came in "early" qua graphic novels (versus comic books).

I think this was the article I read about it a couple weeks back:

https://variety.com/2022/tv/features/the-sandman-premiere-pr...

Basically - lots of proposed adaptations with stupid plots, bad directing, etc.

Ahhh, no it was this article:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220803-the-sandman-how...

In "An evening with Kevin Smith" (which you can buy, or find on Youtube), he details how around the same time Jon Peters was trying to persuade him to make "Superman Returns" which featured a "Giant Mechanical Spider". Neil Gaiman also got this pitch for a Sandman plot. Eventually the giant spider ended up in "Wild Wild West" with Will Smith. We all know how that went.

Do watch the Kevin Smith clip. It's hilarious. The line "...because in Hollywood, you fail upwards" will forever stay with me.

> I'm not sure why it's sacrosanct

Well, it's a pretty good fantasy comic for adults. It's not the only one, nor the first, but it's pretty good. And fans tend to be zealous of those. For many of us, it holds a special place in our comics-reading education, and so we would not wish to see it demeaned but yet another low quality adaptation that completely misses the point or dumbs everything down.

Thankfully, it doesn't seem to be the case with this adaptation of The Sandman :)

edit: this is what Gaiman has to say about The Sandman's cultural significance:

"And after 30 years, “Sandman,” at this point, is probably the single best-selling series of graphic novels ever published in the U.S."

>>> Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell I had forgotten about that show. It was really great! Just 2 cents.

Sandman definitely has a feel that will date it. I am enjoying it (having the Sandman go to hell is a great plot mechanism) but I don't know about the re-watchability. I don't think this is limited to Netflix, I feel like there is definitive 2020's mise en scene, which I don't think Truffaut or Godard would approve of.

This is the first decent criticism I've actually seen about the show. Netflix scraping for every penny is definitely hurting production value

I feel very similar about Disney Plus. The shows are all very safe and bland. Even the hyped ones, at the end, I kind of feel like I just watched the adult version of Airbud, you know?

Yeah; it took about 5 minutes for me to go from initial sign up, to realizing the Miramax catalog is completely missing from Disney+, to deciding to cancel it ASAP.

The Mandalorian was OK, I guess, but meh. Also, they're censoring the back catalog in offensive ways (Daryl Hannah's disturbing case of carpet butt comes to mind.)

Anyway, I'd pay for access to the back catalog they bought monopoly rights to. Since it's not for sale, my money is going elsewhere.

(Edit: had the wrong actress...)

Miramax is owned by paramount, not disney, so if those movies are anywhere they would be on paramount+.

The strange, weirdly dramatic style…I’m trying to put my finger on it and having a tough time - the tone in general bothered me.

But nothing bothered me more than the actor himself. The way he spoke, his ridiculously teen angst emo attitude…his hair alone.

I just could absolutely not take him or the show seriously whatsoever, because - even though I’d never seen it - I could literally not get the picture of Edward the vampire from Twilight out of my mind almost any time he was on screen.

There were several times I laughed out loud during periods which were supposed to be dead serious moments - and most of those times were simply due to the hilarious emo attitude of the show’s lead.

Was it intentional? He plays off like a character from a Young Adult novel, not from a legendary Graphic Novel author. The lead was just cringe incarnate.

>But nothing bothered me more than the actor himself. The way he spoke, his ridiculously teen angst emo attitude…his hair alone.

No that's just Morpheus. In the comics he is overly angsty and gets called out on it by others and that a major plot point him having to get over himself in the comic they will be basing the next season on.

That's true to the comics. If anything, they toned down the hair. His sister tells him "You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered, appallingest excuse for an anthropomorphic personification in this or any other plane!"

In an increasing amount of shows, I won't mention the specific ones as to not stir the pot, I dislike the main character so much that I hope something bad happens to them (in the show, to be clear).

Preachy, melodramatic, immature, one idiotic decision after the other.

I don’t know how to say it but it feels like it has no gravitas. Like the original lord of the rings had gravitas, battlefield galactic a has gravitas, the wire has gravitas. What’s making this so… bland? It’s not just the writing I presume, I don’t know.